Contemporary life has become deeply entangled with the digital. Every day, huge quantities of data, or digital artefacts, are generated. To date, the archaeological study of these artefacts has been limited, its potential demonstrated by a few initial studies and, more recently, the emergence of archaeogaming. If archaeology seeks to understand human culture, however, the study of these digital artefacts must become mainstream. This will require collaboration with computer scientists to bring an archaeological sensibility to understanding the virtual. Ultimately, the aims and methods required resemble those that archaeologists have already developed, but require a change of mindset if they are to be widely deployed for the study of digital artefacts.

当代生活已与数字深深纠缠在一起。每天，都会生成大量数据或数字人工制品。迄今为止，对这些文物的考古研究还很有限，一些初步研究证明了它的潜力，最近，考古游戏的出现也证明了这一点。然而，如果考古学试图了解人类文化，那么对这些数字文物的研究必须成为主流。这将需要与计算机科学家合作，为理解虚拟带来考古敏感性。最终，所需的目标和方法类似于考古学家已经制定的目标和方法，但如果要将它们广泛用于数字文物研究，则需要改变思维方式。